Disc drives are commonly used in workstations, personal computers, laptops and other computer systems to store large amounts of data in a form that can be made readily available to a user. In general, a disc drive comprises a magnetic disc that is rotated by a spindle motor. The surface of the disc is divided into a series of data tracks. The data tracks are spaced radially from one another across a band having an inner diameter and an outer diameter.
Each of the data tracks extends generally circumferentially around the disc and can store data in the form of magnetic transitions within the radial extent of the track on the disc surface. An interactive element, such as a magnetic transducer, is used to sense the magnetic transitions to read data, or to transmit an electric signal that causes a magnetic transition on the disc surface, to write data. The magnetic transducer includes a read/write gap that contains the active elements of the transducer at a position suitable for interaction with the magnetic surface of the disc. The radial dimension of the gap fits within the radial extent of the data track containing the transitions so that only transitions of the single track are transduced by the interactive element when the interactive element is properly centered over the respective data track.
The magnetic transducer is mounted by a head structure to a rotary actuator arm and is selectively positioned by the actuator arm over a preselected data track of the disc to either read data from or write data to the preselected data track of the disc, as the disc rotates below the transducer. The actuator arm is, in turn, mounted to a voice coil motor that can be controlled to move the actuator arm across the disc surface.
A servo system is typically used to control the position of the actuator arm to insure that the head is properly centered over the magnetic transitions during either a read or write operation. In a known servo system, servo position information is recorded on the disc surface between written data blocks, and periodically read by the head for use in a closed loop control of the voice coil motor to position the actuator arm. Such a servo arrangement is referred to as an embedded servo system.
In modern disc drive architectures utilizing an embedded servo, each data track is divided into a number of data sectors for storing fixed sized data blocks, one per sector. Associated with the data sectors are a series of servo sectors, generally equally spaced around the circumference of the data track. The servo sectors can be arranged between data sectors or arranged independently of the data sectors such that the servo sectors split data fields of the data sectors.
Each servo sector contains magnetic transitions that are arranged relative to a track centerline such that signals derived from the transitions can be used to determine head position. For example, the servo information can comprise two separate bursts of magnetic transitions, one recorded on one side of the track centerline and the other recorded on the opposite side of the track centerline. Whenever a head is over a servo sector, the head reads each of the servo bursts and the signals resulting from the transduction of the bursts are transmitted to, e.g., a microprocessor within the disc drive for processing.
When the head is properly positioned over a track centerline, the head will straddle the two bursts, and the strength of the combined signals transduced from the burst on one side of the track centerline will equal the strength of the combined signals transduced from the burst on the other side of the track centerline. The microprocessor can be used to subtract one burst value from the other each time a servo sector is read by the head. When the result is zero, the microprocessor will know that the two signals are equal, indicating that the head is properly positioned.
If the result is other than zero, then one signal is stronger than the other, indicating that the head is displaced from the track centerline and overlying one of the bursts more than the other. The magnitude and sign of the subtraction result can be used by the microprocessor to determine the direction and distance the head is displaced from the track centerline, and generate a control signal to move the actuator back towards the centerline.
Each servo sector also contains encoded information to uniquely identify the specific track location of the head. For example, each track can be assigned a unique number, which is encoded using a Gray code and recorded in each servo sector of the track. The Gray code information is used in conjunction with the servo bursts to control movement of the actuator arm when the arm is moving the head in a seek operation from a current track to a destination track containing a data field to be read or written.
The head structure also includes a slider having an air bearing surface that causes the transducer to fly above the data tracks of the disc surface due to fluid currents caused by rotation of the disc. Thus, the transducer does not physically contact the disc surface during normal operation of the disc drive to minimize wear at both the head and disc surface. The amount of distance that the transducer flies above the disc surface is referred to as the “fly height.” By maintaining the fly height of the head at an even level regardless of the radial position of the head, it is ensured that the interaction of the head and magnetic charge stored on the media will be consistent across the disc.
When writing or reading information, the hard disc drive may perform a seek routine to move the transducers from one cylinder (track) to another cylinder. During the seek routine the voice coil motor is excited with a current to move the transducers to the new cylinder location on the disc surfaces. The controller also performs a servo routine to insure that the transducer moves to the correct cylinder location, and is at the center of the track. This servo routine is typically comprised of three primary algorithms: a seek control algorithm, a transitional control algorithm, and a track following control algorithm. The seek control algorithm is used to rapidly move the read/write head of the disc drive to a desired track on the disc. The track following control algorithm is used to control the position and velocity of the read/write head so that the head remains over the center of the desired track. The transitional control algorithm is used to transition from the seek control algorithm to the track following control algorithm by sampling position and velocity error measurements and based on these measurements, determining whether control should be passed to the track following control algorithm. The transitional control algorithm and track following control algorithm are together sometimes referred to as the track following-settle system.
The transitional control algorithm is very critical so that the read/write head does not fall out of the final track follow stage during reading or writing due to initial position or velocity errors. Known transitional control algorithms sample position and velocity error measurements and compare them to established thresholds. The known transitional control algorithm requires 8 consecutive samples whose position and velocity error measurements are within the established thresholds.
The position threshold, velocity threshold, and number of consecutive samples are used as the “tuners” for the track following settle system. That is, the values for the thresholds and number of consecutive samples may be adjusted to obtain different settling characteristics. However, it has been determined that adjusting these three parameters is not sufficient to provide acceptable read and write throughput performance.
Tightening the thresholds and increasing the number of consecutive samples for qualifying to transition to the track following control algorithm does provide low position and velocity errors, but it also increases the settle time unpredictably. This is because the consecutive sample based transitional algorithm may be restarted any number of times before the required number of consecutive samples falling within the established thresholds is encountered. That is, while accumulating the number of samples that fall within the established thresholds, if a sample exceeds a threshold, the count must be reset to zero and the process repeated, thus increasing the settle time for the read/write head.
The present invention provides a solution to this and other problems, and offers other advantages over previous solutions.